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Wednesday, 01 August 2007 |
You're not going to believe this (ok... some of you might)I didn't stray too far off course, but my loosely cobbled plans were re-stitched at the last minute when I arrived in Bendigo to catch up with some hometown buddies before trekking off. When I got there I started to get a feeling that hanging around this town for the night could only end in drinking too much (this circle of friends likes to mparty... a lot), so instead I felt more inclined to just keep driving north. I don't really feel guilty about it because most of them didn't even know I was coming to visit anyway.
Indeed, what I wanted most – and as quickly as possible – was warm weather... a chance to expose my skin to fresh air again. So drive on I did, through the afternoon, into and through the night – just like Tyler Durden would have. This particular leg (the longest and fastest I'll do in one stretch I'd say) ended at Ballina, in the northern arm of NSW. When I spied this kayak fishing haven I just knew it was time to stop driving. I very nearly turned in at Iluka but then decided to keep going to Byron Bay. Just before I got there, however, I passed through Ballina, and thought it would looked as good a place as any to get started. So there and then, immediately after I pulled in at the Ballina Holiday Park (instead of going to sleep like I should have), I loaded the yak, dragged it across the road, passed the Pelicans and into the Richmond River.  Pelicans feeding (from fish scraps) It was an interesting trip to, resulting in a couple of undersized Tailor. It could have been so much more had I been prepared for catching Blackfish, which were being caught in numbers by land and boat anglers. I may just target them tomorrow morning, although if tides look good (and I think they will) I'm going to head out into the ocean to see what I can find. I'll write up a report on both trips tomorrow afternoon.  Why did I know the 1st one would be a Tailor? Passing through the first two thirds of the NSW coast, I spotted some magical looking estuaries and rivers to fish. The more I observed, the more the enormity of what I am planning to do started to sink in. There's just to many places one can dunk a yak! It felt almost shameful to skip these spots, but I'll be back when the weather is more to my liking. I'm too brain-dead to type anymore, so I'll upload some happy snaps to tell a few thousand words instead.  Comments (5) | E-mail | Read more...
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Saturday, 28 July 2007 |
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Bruce Smith is a Fishnet pro angler, well known not just for his commentary on fishing, but also (as I just discovered) his photography. One of his pages I found particularly inspiring - exactly the sort of stuff I'll be chasing with my new cameras. Click on over to take a look.
KayakCallan and I very nearly got close enough to some Humpbacks for photos like this in Port Phillip Bay several weeks ago, but alas, they were moving away from us when we spotted then from some 4 - 5km out. Of course, that didn't stop us trying to close the distance :-)Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Wednesday, 25 July 2007 |
Perfect kayaking camera, not so perfect touring cameraSome time ago I posed a question in the Australian Kayak Fishing Forums , which was: If money was no object, what camera would you buy for kayak fishing?
 Olympus m725sw
Its advantages for kayak fishing are numerous. Firstly, no waterproof housing needed and secondly, small enough to fit into any PFD pocket. It has a good sized LCD, takes good photos, Youtube quality video and does pretty much everything most kayak (or boat) fishermen would want. So why did I ask that question in the first place? Comments (4) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Sunday, 22 July 2007 |
And lives to smile about it One of the Norcalkayakanglers (thats Northern California) veterans, Dan, was attacked by a sizable Great White Shark at Bean Hollow, USA yesterday. Actually it's more precise to say that his kayak was attacked, which was infact a red Hobie Adventure. A few people have been quick to point the finger at the fins as being the cause as well as the colour, although it's equally possible that it was just sheer bad luck. It's happened before and it'll happen again - but hopefully not to soon. The good news is that Dan was unhurt. Infact, I have to say that I'm surprised that the kayak didn't sustain more damage either.
Not a lot of news has surfaced as of yet, but jdyak, who was there, did have this to say in the norcalkayakangler forums:
I was there, Dan was knocked out of his kayak by a great white in full attack mode. When he climbed back in the shark was still gnawing on his kayak. He is okay, his kayak limped in, he was taking water on but it held together. I did not see the attack, only him coming in real fast. I helped him try to settle his nerves on the water and we paddled/peddled in together. Some of the Kayakers actually saw the splash after the shark attacked. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Thursday, 19 July 2007 |
Going pro!I wasn't completely satisfied with the functionality of the previous gallery update, which was based on free software. So I decided to bite the bullet and pay the easily-swallowed sum of 12 Euros for the electrolyte-enhanced pro version of the same software. This has given me the ability to add captions to thumbnails and enlarged images, as well as improving the navigation for slideshow viewing. Another new feature is the ability for users to save enlarged images, which the free version didn't. As with before, I can still place any gallery thumbnail diplay into any article I like, which is pretty cool. Click the read more link to see what I mean.
On a semi-unrelated note, I've been using NextG wireless connectivity exclusively now for the past few days and I'm not liking what I'm seeing. Hopefully it's just a technical problem with my wireless network card, but connections have been very slow - worse than dial up. To make things worse, it seems to have disabled the ability to add simple text links in the Joomla content admin system I'm using here. Hrmmm... I have some investigating to do. Comments (2) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Monday, 16 July 2007 |
It probably looked OK to those who hadn't tried working with it, but the gallery software I was using was irritating me a bit, mainly for lack of functionality. So I've replaced it with something that does have more functionality - but some limitations of it's own. One being that it has no interface for an entry page, so I've cobbld together one of my own. It may not look as clinical or sterile as the last one, but it basically does the same thing. What lacks most of all is the ability to add a caption to images, but somehow I think it's more a case of me missing the obvious at this stage.
The new functionality outweighs the bad though. Not only is the management system as easy as you like, it allows for slideshow viewing of enlarged images (faster and easier) as well as the ability to post an entire gallery catagory into any single page I like, including this one. Click the read more link to see an example of what that allows me to do. I also took this opportunity to add some new images to the gallery and increased the size of some of them. From this point forward all enlarged images will be 500 x 350 instead of the 425 x 319 resolution that I was using. While editing them all, I also made the image watermarks a little more subtle than they were. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Sunday, 15 July 2007 |
Fishless, but...I wasn't sure if I'd be able to due to my injured shoulder (which is healing faster than expected) but I was determined to try and get out for a fish today. Not because I thought the fish gods would be smiling, but more so just to get the newly fitted Hobie Revolution on the water for a test run. Despite it being a completely fishless day for all concerned, I'm glad I made the effort. My shoulder held up nicely *phew* and the Revo performed like a dream.  The sounder was of little use this day Eberbachl and GoneFishin were just about ready to go when I arrived at the Altona pier just after 6:00 AM and I followed them out soon after. For the next few hours we zigged and zagged our way towards Williamstown, flinging and trolling lures from all angles. There was no interest at all though, which leaves me very little to report. I did get a couple of reasonable snaps with my new camera though (Canon Powershot G7).
I'm pleased to say that the outfitting of the Revo went exactly as planned. The forward rod holders are ideally positioned, the sounder worked a charm and storage worked out OK as well. I have sinced decided to ditch the center hatch tackle tray, however, which was being used to store snacks and lighting equipment. It worked rather well actually, but with a waterproof housing protecting it, the Canon camera is pretty chunky. I want to store it somewhere that's fast and easy to access though and the centre hatch is spot on. I think the Hobie hatch sack will work nicely for this. Comments (2) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Friday, 13 July 2007 |
I've enabled a registered user function, which wasn't something I was going to bother doing at first, but have since thought better of it as that would allow morons to impersonate others by name. This includes my own name, and lets face it... I'm not the only person in the world called Josh. I do, however, seem to be the only person in the world with the nickname '5thofNovember' so I've registered that name and will be using that to post under from now on in. Thankfully, registering is quick and painless. I've had to turn off anonymous posting to get this working properly, unfortunately.
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Tuesday, 10 July 2007 |
Inexpensive, low-tech fishing rod holders, no screws required!  Viagra enhanced Hobie Trax Wheel Cart Initially I had planned to incorporate 3 extra rod holders, liking the look of the RAM mount tube style holders above all. The plan was to put 2 up front and one in the rear well, right behind the seat. Since then, however, I've come up with what I think is an equally good solution for that centrally positioned rear holder I wanted. I will still install 2 up front, but I think this concept solves the rear rod holder issue nicely, so I won't be needing a 3rd. As all Hobie kayak owners would know, they come complete with an invaluable wheel cart device that assists in transporting the yak from car to waters edge. On almost all models (except for the tandem ones I believe), the wheel cart is stored upside down behind the seat, using the same scupper holes that they plug into when carting the kayak. It's positioned right where I figured an added rod holder or two might come in handy. The concept is so simple I'm surprised Hobie haven't done it themselves yet. :-) Comments (1) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Saturday, 07 July 2007 |
Saturday's turn out again included a couple more AKFF members, including KayakCallan and Eberbachl, both of whom I've had the pleasure of fishing with at HobieVic's pied-piper-like destination of Fishermen's beach, Mornington. Callan was poking around for fishing bargains by the looks, dragging the other half along all the way (actually, she didn't look at all bored to be true).
Eberbachl has been getting around in a sit-in kayak, with original influences coming from paddling aspirations exclusively. Since then he's discovered that yak fishing is pretty damned fun. But after having watched me and Scott race about in a Revo and Outback respectively, I think he's not having too many problems noticing the advantages of pedal-powered yak fishing. Right now he seems kinda torn between an Outback and a Revo, but with a background in paddling (and expressing interest on doing more of it) I suggested he should look closely at the Revolution... and perhaps even the Adventure.Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Friday, 06 July 2007 |
 Hobie: Best Water Sports Stand I did indeed find quite a few bargains in the tackle department as I poked around, with most tastes catered for. If you're looking to snaffle some marked down fishing gear now's a good time to do it. There's a lot of people walking out of there with rods and reels and I may just end up being one of them (I have my eye on a Penn reel). I should probably also mention that there are discounted prices on Hobie kayaks as a show special as well, including $150 off pedal kayaks and $100 off paddle yaks. If my memory serves me correctly, 2006 Hobie Adventure's are going out at $200 off normal price. A couple of familiar faces showed up today, including AKFF members Hoit (whom I'd been fortunate enough to meet on the water one day) and Varp. Until today I hadn't realized that he and I had met before, but when he arrived at the Hobie display the face looked strangely familiar. As soon as we got talking about paddling around Wilsons Prom he realised that I actually sold him a hiking pack a few years back. There was no need for me to give him a sales pitch today, however, because it looked to me like his mind was made up when he got there. Lucky man walked away a proud new owner of a Hobie Adventure today. Somehow I think this experience might have something to do with it. Comments (2) | E-mail | Read more... |
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Thursday, 05 July 2007 |
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As expected the first day of the 2007 Melbourne Boat Show was relatively quiet, which I reckon is a good way to slide into what is obviously going to be a very busy weekend. If today's experience is anything to go by, that means the guys manning the Hobie stand (if you could call it that - it looks more like a beachside resort at Cancun, minus the Coronas) are going to be doing a lot of talking and handing out price lists. Most of the interest today seemed to be focused on two models specifically, one of them being the Hobie Outfitter kayak, which was catching eyes for its tandem functionality. Almost everyone I spoke to about this kayak asked me whether or not it could be used solo as well, which made me think that a lot of these guys were thinking of the wife almost as much as themselves. Maybe she'll agree to it if she can use it to... you can practically see some guys thinking this. As understandable as that is, there were a few times I felt like saying: 'Listen mate, just get yourself a solo and make life easier on yourself when you go alone (which will probably be 99% of the time if there is fishing involved), as well as easier on your wallet'. Perhaps I'm a tad jaded in such matters, however, so I just kept my mouth shut.  The Adventure Island attracted lots of interest The other major drawcard is the Hobie Adventure Island and it's not hard to see why when you get up close and personal with this thing. The more I looked at it the more I wanted to start playing with it, for real. One of the first things people ask me when they first hear the basics of my upcoming coastal kayak trip is: 'Really? You're going to paddle all the way around the coastline of Australia?' Some of them seem a tad deflated when I say: ‘no, I'm driving around and putting the kayak in wherever it looks and smells fishy’. But if I were going to attempt a kayak trip around this coastline, the Island would definitely be my ideal craft. Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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Wednesday, 04 July 2007 |
From Canoes to Cruisers… see what 2007 brings to the table
 2007
Obviously I'm also very keen to investigate the latest innovations in the boating scene. If you've got nothing better to do over the next 5 days - and fortunately these guys have picked a time of year when you probably don't - and you are anywhere near Melbourne, head on down to snoop around. I'll be one of the guys wearing alarmingly bright Hawian shirts at the Hobie booth. Cya there.
2007 Club Marine Melbourne Boat Show website Be first to comment this article | E-mail | Read more... |
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